Many teachers start their school year with a couple of ice breakers / team building activities. Then, academics take over and team building gets left behind. Yet, most teachers will tell you that building a classroom community is important. While team building is not the only way to build community, it can easily be an integral (and fun) part of it. Would it help to know that team building can also build critical thinking and creativity in the classroom? There are a myriad of benefits to team building from practicing soft skills (interpersonal, communication, etc) to developing critical thinking (analysis and evaluation) and creativity (generation of unique ideas).

STEM, PBL, 21st Century Skills, Common Core - all of these initiatives practice and promote:Critical ThinkingIdea and Solution GenerationCollaborationCreativityCommunication

For maximum benefits and development, team building should be ongoing throughout the year. What? No time? Can you squeeze something in as a morning waker-upper? What about at recess, or in that 10 minutes extra you have to fill before lunch? Or can you incorporate some content and skill standards and just make a lesson out of it?

Here are a few examples of how you can incorporate team building activities to develop thinking in your classroom:

1) Human Knot: get 10ish people into a tight circle. Each person should grab 2 different group members' hands at random around the circle, not next to each other and not 2 hands of the same person. They must untangle the resulting "human knot" without letting go of anyone else's hand until they are holding hands in a complete circle. Generally, they should not change hand position, but you can make judgment calls if someone is really twisted. Content/Skills addressed: Soft skills, communication, visual-spatial, idea generation, experimenting, refining

2) Draw Back to Back: have partners sit back to back. One should have pattern or picture and must describe to their partner how to draw it. Variation: have one make a LEGO creation and then describe it to be made by the partner. Content/Skills addressed: Soft skills, communication, visual-spatial, attributes, shapes, structures

3) Build the Tallest Tower (or Strongest Castle, Fastest Roller Coaster, etc): Provide limited materials such as paper, tape, and scissors for teams to build the best structure in a certain amount of time. Extend with the use of technology for planning. Content/Skills addressed: Soft skills, scientific method, measuring, foundations, structures, planning, use of technology (digital and non-digital)

Each of these activities encourages critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Academic contentcan be added or already falls into place. After a team building activity, make sure to make time for debriefing. Have students discuss what they did, how it went, and what they might change next time. What did they learn about the content, their thinking, and themselves?

Team building is a great way to build community and collaboration as well as develop critical thinking skills. Add it into your toolbox and help your students grow. :)